


Plans in Motion

by DatFreud



Series: An Unsettling Path [2]
Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Climbing Class, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, M/M, Mental Instability, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Secret Relationship, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-30
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-07-11 03:59:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7027600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DatFreud/pseuds/DatFreud
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Night Terror. Set a few weeks after the events of Night Terror. After cutting ties with his therapist Josh begins to plan the perfect way to recover from the deaths of his sisters and to teach his so-called friends a lesson, but with a whole new kind of relationship with Chris, things might not go as he had planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Plans in Motion

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everybody! I am back with a sequel to Night Terror. I have not written it all yet, so there may go some time between updates, but I’ll do my best.  
> It will be based on stuff that's already happened in Night Terror. This part of the series will focus on the time period between the events of Night Terror and the beginning of the game. It will focus on Josh preparing for his revenge prank and on the growing relationship between Chris and Josh.  
> I hope you will like this fic as much as the other one, and as always feel free to tell me what you liked or what you didn't like! I love to hear from you guys <3

The big Washington house was once again empty. Well, almost. All the rooms were empty and the house was completely dark, except for the light creeping through the crack in a door at the end of a long hallway. Inside the room Josh was leaning over his desk, scribbling and drawing with a focused look on his face. Scattered across the desk were countless of sketches and notes, and even a shooting script to one of his father’s horror movies, along with a fake wanted poster, which Josh himself had created after carefully studying real wanted-posters, to get the details done just right.

For the last couple of weeks Josh had been working on a plan for a revenge prank, which he planned to play on his friends in a not so distant future. Josh had played some pretty good pranks in the past, but this one was going to top them all. He had put so much time, effort and resources into this. He had even ordered a dead pig for Christ sake. But it was going to be so worth it. He was going to create the most terrifying prank, his friend had ever witnessed.   He didn’t want to hurt them; they were still his friends after all. He just wanted them to feel what his sisters had felt almost one year ago. He wanted them to feel terrorized, humiliated and panicked. He wanted them to realize what they had put Hannah and Beth through.

 He wanted them to regret, but not all of them. Chris had nothing to regret, even though Chris himself thought so. Chris had had nothing to do about the prank; he had spent his evening playing drinking games with Josh, which had ended with the both of them passed out on the counter top. None of them had known anything about what the others were planning. Josh knew that, but Chris didn’t. Josh could clearly feel how Chris would tense up, whenever Josh’s sisters were mentioned, and he could clearly see the guilt in Chris’ baby blue eyes when Josh had troubles with dissociation, like Chris himself was the reasons for the sickness growing inside of Josh.

Josh closed his eyes and shook his head in an attempt to get rid of the dark thoughts. He hated the guilty look in Chris’ eyes, and would do whatever it took to free his boyfriend from it, because Chris had nothing to feel guilty about.

That was why Josh had a special place for Chris in his plans. He would make Chris the hero of his own little horror movie. Chris would be the one to overcome all the obstacles, save the day, and get the girl. The last part, made Josh’s stomach clench, because he knew what that would mean for him. Josh loved Chris, and he really wanted to be with him. But deep down, he knew that Chris deserved more, and that was why he needed to include the last part. Chris deserved something more than a broken boy. Like any other movie hero, he deserved the girl of his dreams.

Outside the last ray of sunlight disappeared beneath the horizon and the only thing left to illuminate the room was Josh’s old desk lamp. Even though Josh had been working most of the day, he still felt energized and clear in his head, and was eager to continue. It had been so long since he last had been able to concentrate like that without tiring out. It felt so good, like he was finally using his full potential, instead of being held back by Dr. Hill and his stupid pills.

It had been two weeks since Josh last took his medication and even longer since his last therapy session. Dr. Hill had kept trying to contact him in the beginning, but Josh had ignored every mail and every call from his former therapist, and eventually Dr. Hill had stopped trying. It was nice not to have to put himself back together every week because of a hard therapy session with way too many questions, which Josh almost never knew or wanted to know the answers to. It felt so good to be able to just shut out unpleasant thoughts and questions instead of being forced to reflect on them. It made things so much easier.

 And without the medication and its dulling and apathetic effects, Josh was actually able to focus on what was really important. Like his plan and Chris. Josh looked up from his notes on special effects and towards his car keys, which he had placed at the corner of the desk. He was supposed to meet Chris later tonight, but he really wanted to finish the first outline of his own private revenge prank before he met up with his boyfriend.

Things were going well between them. The transition from being bros to being boyfriends wasn’t really as noticeable or awkward as Josh originally had thought it would be.  The only things that really had changed were they spend more time together and had become more intimate, both physically and emotionally. It had taken some getting used to on Josh’s part. After his sister’s had died, Josh had pretty much shut himself off from the rest of the world, because they had been the only ones that he felt he could truly trust and the only ones he knew he could come to if he had problems. After their death he had put on a mask and pretended that everything was perfect, that he was completely okay, because he didn’t feel like there was nobody else he could drop the mask in front of. The only one he knew would listen was Dr. Hill, but that was only because he was being paid to do so. It wasn’t because he genuinely cared.

But in the end, he had trusted Chris, and he had slowly started to open up to him, even though it had been terrifying at first, because what if Chris thought he was crazy, and left him, like his parents had left him to doctors and their medication? But Chris had been so understanding and accepting, that Josh quickly adjusted to their newfound openness towards each other.

Josh had always thought that he was their only one keeping secrets from him his friend, but that turned out not to be true. Chris had been keeping secrets too, some more serious than others. Josh had always thought that he knew Chris in and out. They had been almost inseparable since the day in third grade when their teacher decided to make Chris and Jamey switch places. Therefore, Josh had always assumed that he knew almost everything about the other boy.   But he quickly found out, that he had been wrong. Chris had had a few secrets of his own, that he had never told to anybody before, until now. Chris had told Josh about his struggles with admitting to himself, that he might not be as straight as others thought he was, and with a painful expression he had told Josh about his insecurities about his own body.

Chris’ revealed secrets had left Josh with a bad taste in his mouth. It was so unfair that someone as kind and loving as Chris, should doubt himself like that.  Witnessing something like that only made it more clear to Josh, that he was doing the right thing when he stopped taking his medication and stopped meeting with Dr. Hill. He was going to make everything better, especially for Chris, because Chris deserved to be able to see himself as Josh saw him.

In his many therapy sessions, Josh had learned one thing: You don’t always know everything about yourself. Some things are hidden away in the most unconscious parts of your mind, because you are too scared to face that part of yourself. Sometimes it takes a little push, before you finally realize who you are.

And Josh could be that push. Chris deserved that much.

 Josh smiled to himself and made another adjustment on the contraption he was designing. The special effects in his father’s movies along with all the special devices that made up the foundation of a good horror scene had always fascinated Josh. Even as a small boy he loved to look at the drawings in his father’s notes and shooting scripts while trying to guess what the machine did. He had made plans and drawings for such contraptions before, but this was the first time, he actually was planning on using it in real life.  That thought alone sent a strange sensation, a mixture of excitement and nervousness, through him.

Josh jumped in his seat when his phone suddenly buzzed loudly beside him.  It was Chris, who was calling him.  Josh quickly looked at the digital clock on his bedside table, and cursed under his breath, when he realized he had been so caught up in his work, that he had completely forgotten about the time.

“Hallo?” He answered the phone and held it to his ear with one hand, while adding the finishing touches to his sketch with the other.

“Hey Bro, where are you? You were supposed to be here over an hour ago.”

“Sorry, Cochise. I just lost track of time. I’ll be right over.”

“Ah, okay…” The other end of the line went silent as if the other teen was thinking of something to say. Josh didn’t like silence, especially when it was night outside and he was alone in the house. It made him feel tense and uncomfortable. It had always been like that, but  it had gotten worse after he stopped taking his medication. Because without the dulling effects of the drugs, nothing held back his fears and anxiety anymore. Keeping his mind busy with his plan help ease the discomfort, but when the silence crept up on him, so did the fear and anxiety.

Josh opened his mouth to ask what Chris had been doing today in an attempt to chase the silence away, but Chris beat him to it.

“Josh, are you feeling okay?” the blonde asked in a serious tone, making the brunette swallow a lump in his throat when he heard the concerned tone in his boyfriend’s voice. The brunette laid the pen down and scratched his head in slight discomfort. He hadn’t meant, to make Chris worry like that.

“Yeah. I was just working on an assignment from my psychiatrist,” Josh said, deliberately hiding the truth behind a plausible lie.

“Oh,” came the answer from the other end of the line, “a tough one, I guess?”

“You bet,” Josh answered, while nodding even though he knew the blonde boy couldn’t see him, “but I’m just finishing it up, and then I’ll be right over.”

“I’ll see you then.”

Josh hung up, and took one last look at his sketches before he safely stored them and all his other notes away from prying eyes, inside a big black box with a lock on it. He stowed it in the back his closet and hid the key in his wallet.

When he closed the door to his bedroom, Josh took a few deep breaths with both of his eyes closed and a smile on his face. His plans were coming along nicely. When he first got the idea he had spent a lot of time brainstorming possible scenarios and when he had reached a general plan, he had started researching deception methods and possible ways to put it into operation. He had gotten a lot of inspiration from his dad’s movies, but he also felt like he had given the prank his own special twist, which made it completely his own, and not just a copy.

Josh started walking down the empty hallway with a satisfied look on his face, because tonight he would set his plans into motion.


End file.
